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Remembering the victims of migration

· U.S. and Mexican bishops meet at the border ·

March 11, 2014

The United Sates Conference of
Catholic Bishops (USCCB) Committee on Migration will travel to Nogales,
Arizona, on 30 March to join Latin American Bishops on a walk along the
U.S.-Mexico border in memory of the thousands who have died attempting to cross
the desert, since 1998 the number is close to 6,000.

According to the USCCB website, on Tuesday, 1 April, at 9 am, bishops
from the US and Mexico will concelebrate Holy Mass in memory of those who perished seeking a
better life. The majority of victims are recorded in Arizona, because of the
increase in border security measures in the urban areas of California and Texas
has forced migrants to take a more dangerous route through the desert of
Arizona. In the area around Tuscon, for example, migrants spend days on foot
crossing the desert, risking dehydration.

The bishops' initiative is
expressly inspired by the example of Pope Francis, who, in his first trip
outside of Rome, travelled to the Italian island of Lampedusa to remember
African migrants who died attempting to reach Europe. During that trip, Pope
Francis spoke about the “globalization of indifference” toward migrants and
decried the “throwaway culture” that disposes of human beings in the pursuit of
wealth.

The purpose of the trip
is to highlight the human suffering caused by a broken immigration system, an
aspect of the national immigration debate which is often ignored. Bishop Eusebio Elizondo, Auxiliary of Seattle
and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Migration, underlined the “human aspect
of immigration” that “immigration is primarily about human beings, not economic
or social issues”. “Those who have died,” he continued, “and those deported
each day have the same value and innate
God-given dignity as all persons, yet we ignore their suffering and their
deaths”.